Scally shocked Stoke with the venom of his comments, refusing to forgive and forget his publicly stated dislike of Pulis.

When Danny Kedwell shot Gillingham ahead, it looked like an embarrassing one for Pulis.

But Stoke found the extra gear they
knew they would need and, in quick succession, Jon Walters, Cameron
Jerome and Robert Huth cleared their path into the fourth-round draw.
Last year's beaten finalists have Wembley back on target.

Pulis ignored Scally's childish
demand that he restrict himself to the dressing room and the dugout and
defied it by saluting Gillingham fans before the start.

At the end he had both sets of supporters shouting his name.

He said: 'My lot were asking me whose side I was on.'

On the Scally verbals, he said: 'He
can say what he wants. It's a free world. You can see what the
supporters were thinking. That's all that matters to me.

Heading through: Robert Huth nods Stoke's third

'I had four fantastic years at this club. My last game was in front of a 90,000 Wembley play-off crowd.'

The shock for Stoke was quick in coming.

They had looked uncomfortable at the
tenacity of Gillingham's attacks but still composed enough to deal with
the early and expected attacks.

They were caught in a moment of
reckless indecision that allowed Kedwell to sweep in a cross from the
left after Asmir Begovic had been slow to react.

Perfect start: Gillingham's Danny Kedwell prods home to put the home side up in the 16th minute

Celebration time: The Priestfield rocks after Kedwell's strike

Walters set them back on the road to
recovery after the half hour when he finished off a Premier League-class
attack with a shot that Ross Flitney should have dealt with far better
than he did.

When Jerome gave Stoke the lead two
minutes before the interval, there was little reasonable chance of a
comeback for the Division Two side.